SOURCE: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 6/5/18

Research advocates hope the Senate farm bill will give agricultural projects a bigger boost than the House version, H.R. 2 (115), which essentially kept funding for ag research flat while providing organic research with a $10-million bump. Among those clamoring for farm bill dollars is the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research. The organization, created by the 2014 farm bill, promotes agricultural research by forming public-private partnerships, using $200 million in federal seed money. FFAR is banking on the Senate reupping funding for the initiative when the upper chamber's farm bill is released, which could happen as soon as this week.

"We have very high hopes for the Senate as that was our place of origin," FFAR Executive Director Sally Rockey told MA. The foundation has spent about $84 million of its funding pool, matching every program dollar with private sector funding to maximize the impact of its work. Rockey said the foundation will likely be able to continue if it doesn't get full funding from the final farm bill, but it would have to revamp its fundraising model to make up for the lost dollars. But what makes FFAR projects attractive to private donors, she said, is the sizable chunk of federal money it has at its disposal.

"Investment in our future": The foundation has provided more than 80 grants for projects ranging from addressing food waste to improving soil health. One of its largest grants, at $15 million, went to a University of Illinois research team that's working on improving crop yields by making photosynthesis more efficient. So far researchers have seen a 20-percent increase in yield in test crops, and they're working to replicate those results in soybeans, cassava and cowpea.

"Science is happening so fast and in agriculture, specifically, because we can apply this science very rapidly to our production system," Rockey said. "We're seeing that new technological advances are being applied to agriculture faster than almost every discipline. Investments in agriculture are really an investment in our future."

Keeping up with China: Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Senate Ag Chairman Pat Roberts spoke about a need for increased investment for ag research at a farm bill listening session in Manhattan, Kan., last week. "We never want to be behind any foreign country when it comes to food production," Perdue said, citing the fact that China and other countries have outpaced the U.S. in government spending on ag research in recent years. If farmers don't have access to technology like high-speed broadband and the benefits of research, Roberts said, "it's going to be awfully hard to compete."